Going Home!

“Where we love is home,

Home that the feet may leave,

but not our hearts.”

― Oliver Wendell Holmes

I have had to think about that word 'home' over the last couple of days and I have been wondering where exactly its supposed to be!
I am more or less a nomad and ever since I went away to University, the word 'Home' has meant different things to me at different times in my life. As a young child in elementary school, going home meant leaving behind the drudgery of school work for a place where the TV beckoned and lunch was occasionally the dreaded beans combined with wonderful dodo! Home was the end of a delightful day when the parents would tuck us into bed with the telling of delightful tales about Tortoise or Jack and the bean stalk.

 Home was the village during the holidays where the grandparents were always delighted to welcome their brood of grandchildren, where we had the run of the compound, where we visited the goats, chickens, fish, rabbits and generally had a great time with other cousins. Home was the smell of the Christmas food bubbling delightedly in the cooking pots, it was the joy of seeing relations whom we saw once a year.

In secondary school, home was the one place to get a decent meal after consuming 'boarding house' food for three months or more. It was the one place on exeat days you could go home, wash your clothes, have a good meal and make your hair before you went back to the 'other home' filled with seniors and juniors dressed in the same garb and with whom you shared a friendship or an acquaintance.

In university 'home' was that place where your monthly allowance came from unfailingly at the beginning of a new month. It was the place where your parents received your calls from the NITEL telephone booths to complain about the living conditions in the hostels or the work load that seemed too much to handle. 'Home' was the one constant place that you knew your way to when you wanted to surprise the parents and knew that no matter what happened they would be there waiting for you.

During House Job 'home' was the one bedroom apartment behind which stood a forest of trees that hid snakes, ghosts and other creatures created by your imagination when you were not too exhausted by the calls from the hospital to come see patients. Home was behind the red doors on which the orderlies knocked and called out in their shrill voices 'Se e wan le, patient ti de o' (Are you home, a new patient has arrived). Home was the one place you could go to and sleep off the rigours of a 48hour call! It was the first place I lived in alone. It was the place where I could leave dirty dishes in the sink and not have a roommate squabbling over when to wash dishes!

During Youth Service 'home' was the one place I did not want to leave, I remember sniffling into my sleeves until my dad noticing my tears which I tried very hard to hide promised to come visit me in my new home! And they did- the whole family. They brought the real home to my temporary home.

Over the years, 'home' has been with my sister for a short stint, at my parents, with friends in different parts of the world, on my own, with strangers who became friends. 'Home' has been everywhere I have packed up a little bag and moved into. The beds may be strange, the language may be different, the environment may be hostile, rats and bats might be roommates but home for me has been any and every place I have had to spend more than just a few days. Of course it helps to have family and friends around but more often than not I have had to rely on just me to make me feel at home.

I am leaving in a few days hopefully what has been home for me for the past 4 months and once again I am going home. This time home has changed, not that it hasn't in the past but this time there are huge changes that make me wonder if my concept of home would ever remain the same. I am looking forward to spending quality time with friends and family, eating a hearty home made meal, making a very conscious effort to feel at home until the travel bug bites again. One thing I am sure of I will be extremely delighted to be at 'Home'.